Why Rochford got it right: ‘He’s not pulling these rabbits from the hat to be a smart arse.’

Karl O'Kane
Aug 22, 2017 · 7 min read

LAST Saturday we speculated wildly on what rabbit Stephen Rochford would pull from his hat to shackle the might of Kerry.

Well, he pulled one damn big bunny in the shape of Aidan O’Shea as a full back, a move no-one, apart from David Brady, saw coming — and he was widely ridiculed for throwing it out there.

The backlash against Rochford has been severe, ill-informed and totally out of order.

The world and it’s mother have leapt on him.

It’s been mob mentality, GAA style.

Predictably, Rochford’s decision to drop goalkeeper David Clarke for last year’s All-Ireland final replay has been dragged up and thrown back in is face.

Management appear to have been held directly responsible for Rob Hennelly’s unfortunate mistake, dropping a routine chest catch, which led to a Dublin penalty goal and a black card for the player himself.

But, this is missing the point.

Rochford isn’t pulling these rabbits from the hat to be a smart arse, and he’s not trying to be too clever.

He’s doing it because he has no other choice.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice doesn’t have to be so creative because he is the one with Kieran Donaghy, the one with Paul Geaney and the one with James O’Donoghue, three outrageously talented forwards who have to be marked.

Kerry are the ones who can afford to engage in a shootout, as they did last Sunday, employing no sweeper, and going even more offensive with the introduction of Jack Savage after 23 minutes for Mikey Geaney in an attempt to put Keith Higgins, who was running the game, on the back foot.

Rochford had one cut to get it right, where Dessie Dolan on RTE’s flagship Sunday Game evening show could afford to go a bit scattergun on in.

Analysing the game he first suggested Seamus O’Shea for full back to mark Donaghy, and then later threw in the name of Barry Moran.

Ciaran Whelan — one of the shrewdest analysts around — quickly dismissed the Moran plan, pointing out that Moran has played no football this year.

It’s also worth pointing out that the one time Seamus O’Shea found himself on Donaghy under a high delivery, the Kerry star broke the ball for David Moran’s shot at goal, with Johnny Buckley netting the rebound.

We repeat, Rochford had one chance to get this right — well, he has a second now — and with the wrecking ball history Donaghy has against Mayo, one wrong move and it could have been curtains.

Had the goals started raining, in the first half, as they did in the 2006 All-Ireland final and the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final replay at the Gaelic Grounds, it was curtains for Mayo and their boss.

That’s primarily why O’Shea was there, to deal with an aerial bombardment, one which never came for whatever reason, and it may not have been down to Kerry ingenuity on the hoof, (as is widely believed).

Anway, Mayo would have taken that before the game.

The other argument goes that Mayo missed one of their most potent attacking threats by moving their double All Star from centre half forward/midfield to full back.

But, does this really stack up?

Yes, O’Shea has been playing well, but it’s been against teams he can drive at and win frees.

Against the Kerrys and Dublins, with physically stronger players in the bigger games at Croke Park, O’Shea has understandably never been able to do the demolition jobs he’d inflicted on the likes of Galway (2015), Sligo (2015) and Donegal (2013/15).

And, he generally hasn’t operated at full forward for Mayo this year.

Was Rochford really robbing Peter to pay Paul?

By removing O’Shea from their attack, and withdrawin Lee Keegan in a deeper role, Mayo created the space in which Andy Moran and Jason Doherty ran riot on a badly exposed Kerry full back line.

(The Kerry full back line got very little cover all afternoon, with the honourable exception of Stephen O’Brien).

Okay, O’Shea is not a natural defender. He’s rarely played there, but Donaghy is an unnatural player, and one of the cleverest forwards ever to play the game.

The big Breaffy man had one high ball to deal with and won it.

However, O’Shea was repeatedly caught too far off his man, either done by Donaghy’s movement, pace or in one case, a sweet turn.

The success of this leftfield move depends on your expectations going out.

O’Shea wasn’t there to win low ball out in front.

Donaghy had a hand in 2–4, and also scored a point, but this is a little misleading as one of the points, a Paul Geaney second half effort was a ballooned point effort from the Austin Stacks man.

Also, the first goal would never have happened but for Seamus O’Shea being caught napping by Stephen O’Brien, who continued a great support run to fire low to the net.

Was it O’Shea fault, and by proxy, Rochford, that O’Brien wasn’t tracked for the goal, or his older brother lost the ball in the first place? It seems so for many when they fire out these stats as gospel.

Besides, isn’t it the primary role of a target man like Donaghy or Andy Moran to link the play?

Donaghy — marked by Philly McMahon — had a hand in five first half scores in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat by Dublin, but there was barely a word about it.

This is just what he does.

On the Mayo side last Sunday, Andy Moran shot 1–5, and had a hand in another 1–2.

In such a wide open shoot out, full backs are going to be exposed as O’Shea was.

Mark Griffin is a regular number three, but despite some heroic last ditch defending and a couple of clean tackles, he was given a torrid time by Jason Doherty and whipped off at half time.

And yet, people expect Aidan O’Shea to dominate a man mountain like Donaghy in a wide open game, without giving Donaghy credit for being way more than just a target man.

The problem Rochford had is that once he started O’Shea at full back, provided Donaghy wasn’t pulling down high balls, winning frees and laying on goals, or scoring them himself, he had to stick with him, unless Mayo wound up chasing down a three or four point Kerry lead late on and needed a goal.

Imagine the abuse if Rochford had said ‘job done’ at half time, moved O’Shea out the field and Donaghy set up or scored a goal.

He’d have been crucified for not having the courage of his convictions.

People need to get real here.

Rochford is not playing with the deck of forwards Kerry and Dublin have. He has to be a pragmatist when facing the big guns of the game

And, he got a hell of a lot right last Sunday, but don’t expect him to get much credit for it.

It’s been suggested that Lee Keegan wasn’t great in a half forward role, but he was covering back in the hole vacated at left half back by Keith Higgins as he played sweeper.

Keegan also was fouled for a point by O’Brien and had three more shots, two of which dropped short, the other going wide.

On another day Keegan kicks three points, Mayo win, he’s hailed a hero in his match-up with Paul Murphy, and we’re talking one more big performance from back to back Footballer of the Year titles.

If that happened, Rochford may even have got some credit for the move.

The only show in town this week is, do Mayo leave O’Shea on Donaghy for the replay?

It’s another massive call for a man who isn’t afraid to gamble on his gut instinct and make brave decisions.

The general consensus is, ‘no,’ but Corofin All-Ireland winning boss, Rochford is a pragmatist, and quite conservative by nature.

Mayo have to get into big games against the big guns, and stay in them in order to take it to the wire.

The 2004 and 2006 All-Ireland final hammerings by Kerry were games they were never in. And could never win.

Ignore the lessons of history and it will come back to haunt you, and Mayo don’t have to go back 11 years either to 2006.

The 2014 All-Ireland semi-final draw and replay at the Gaelic Grounds were a prime example of this.

Donaghy turned the drawn game upside down when he went to full forward, setting up James O’Donoghue’s goal, and he ran riot in the replay,

Then Mayo boss, James Horan went stuck with Ger Cafferkey in the replay as his best option, but Donaghy scored a goal, set up another and won an amount of awful long ball inside to keep Kerry afloat.

Kerry went on to triumph in extra time. Donaghy — the 2017 version — is a slicker, sharper and fitter beast than Donaghy the 2014 version.

Rochford clearly figured Donal Vaughan wouldn’t have the size to compete with Donaghy, or that he couldn’t afford to take the chance on it.

Besides, the Vaughan/Johnny Buckley match-up worked a treat for Mayo.

It’s well and good to say, ‘he should have moved O’Shea out and went for it,’ if it’s not your head that’s on the chopping block, but who can play there instead of him, if it’s not Vaughan.

On the evidence of what we’ve seen of Mayo over the years, there is no-one else.

A regular full back won’t do for Donaghy. Dublin are fortunate Philly McMahon is so good, and so physical.

Who would Tyrone try on him? Probably Ronan McNamee, but at least they’d have Colm Cavanagh in the vicinity for back-up and a system to clog Kerry up around the goals.

Mayo can play like that, but generally don’t.

If Kerry had to mark Donaghy, they’d have no-one for him either, but they don’t have to mark him.

Eamonn Fitzmaurice is the one with the loaded deck here.

Rochford is hardly going to change his mind that O’Shea is the right man for the job.

And, he’s the man who gets one shot at this.

He has to get it right.

)

Karl O'Kane

Written by

Star GAA correspondent, 3 children, married to Sinead. From Derry, the bit now known as 'the Swa' by youngsters.

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